Honorary Degrees

Alice Mitchell Rivlin

Alice Mitchell Rivlin

Economist/Public Servant

California State University, Monterey Bay

Alice Mitchell Rivlin is a nationally known and highly acclaimed economist who is known for her effectiveness in working in a bipartisan manner. A senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, Dr. Rivlin has served in a variety of academic and governmental positions in the course of her illustrious career.

From 1975 to 1983, she was the first director of the Congressional Budget Office. During the Clinton administration, she was director of the Office of Management and Budget from 1994 to 1996, becoming the first woman to hold the Cabinet-level position. This was followed by her service as the governor and vice chairwoman of the Federal Reserve from 1996 to 1999.

Dr. Rivlin has been a key participant in recent efforts to curb the deficit and overhaul the tax code. In 2010, she was named by President Obama to serve on the Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. She also co-chaired the Bipartisan Policy Center's Task Force on Debt Reduction.

A frequent contributor to newspapers and television news programs, Dr. Rivlin is a regular contributor to the Nightly Business Report on PBS. Her books include Systematic Thinking for Social Action (1971), Reviving the American Dream (1992) and Beyond the Dot.coms (2001). She is also the co-author of Restoring Fiscal Sanity: How to Balance the Budget (2004) and other books.

Dr. Rivlin's many contributions have been widely recognized. She has received a MacArthur Foundation Prize Fellowship and the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Prize from the American Academy of Social and Political Science. In 2008, the Council for Excellence in Government named her one of the greatest public servants of the last 25 years.

She is a visiting professor at the Public Policy Institute of Georgetown University and a researcher at the Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institute (she led its Economic Studies Program from 1983 to 1987). She also has taught at Harvard, George Mason and The New School universities.

Dr. Rivlin has a bachelor's degree from Bryn Mawr College and a doctorate from Radcliffe College at Harvard University, both in economics.

In recognition of her accomplishments as a leading economist and public servant, the Board of Trustees of the California State University and California State University, Monterey Bay are proud to confer upon Alice Mitchell Rivlin the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws.